Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Musician Bios

Bill Bernatis

Bill Bernatis recently retired from teaching after 45 years as a music educator. After teaching 3 years as a high school band director in Kansas, he taught at Del Mar College, Ithaca College, Baylor University, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Bill is Assistant Principal horn of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Principal horn of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. In his playing career he has performed with many major and minor orchestras, soloed with a few, and performed chamber music of just about any kind that uses a French horn. During his time in Las Vegas, he performed in hundreds of shows from theater to the biggest stars in the entertainment industry. Bill now lives in San Diego, California with his wife, Janis, and enjoys biking, reading, and creating recordings for his YouTube page called “The Etude.” He has happily been playing with the Chautauqua Symphony since 1997 and looks forward to coming back each summer to see his friends in the CSO and relax at his and Janis’s house on Lake Erie.

Diane Bruce

Violinist Diane Bruce performs regularly at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center with the American Symphony, American Composers Orchestra and American Ballet Theater, among others. She has served as Principal Second of the Chautauqua Symphony since 1993. She has played for many Broadway shows, including Les Mis, An American in Paris and The King and I, at Radio City for the Christmas Spectacular and with The Berkshire Bach Society.

Diane received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music from the Juilliard School.

In addition to maintaining a violin teaching studio in Metuchen, NJ, she is an AmSat certified teacher of the Alexander Technique www.dianebrucealexandertechnique.com

When not performing or teaching Diane enjoys swimming and biking, gardening, meditation and playing fetch with her indefatigable Whippet, Bebti.

Stas Chernyshev

An “eloquent” clarinetist with “incredible artistry” Russian-born Stas Chernyshev has established a versatile career as an orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician, and educator (Dallas Morning News, Theater Jones). Principal clarinetist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Chernyshev has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as in Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Russia, South Korea and Japan. A devoted chamber musician, Mr. Chernyshev has collaborated with Grammy-winning ensembles Eighth Blackbird and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, commissioned new works for his instrument. He has been featured on WQXR -New York’s classical music station and WHYY’s television program – On Stage at Curtis. He is the founder and artistic director of Fort Worth Performances for Autism, and a co-founder of Opus Nova Chamber Music Series. Mr. Chernyshev holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and a Master’s degree from St. Petersburg Conservatory.

P.J. Cinque

Double bassist P.J. Cinque joined the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in 2020. Outside of Chautauqua, P.J. is a member of the San Diego Symphony and has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Utah Symphony, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. As an educator, P.J. served as the double bass professor at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, and has given masterclasses at Northern Arizona University and SooChow University in Taiwan. A native of Long Island, he received his bachelor and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School with further study at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. P.J.’s principal teachers include Homer Mensch, Timothy Cobb, Albert Laszlo, and Owen Lee. During his studies, P.J. participated in the Pacific Music Festival and spent three summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School as an orchestral fellowship recipient. P.J. is honored to be a part of the Chautauqua community and enjoys everything the institution and the region have to offer.

Zhe Deng

Zhe currently holds the first violin section position in Odense Symforniokester (Denmark) and also a frequent associate violin in Danish Chamber Orchestra. Previously he holds the assistant concertmaster in Columbus Symphony Orchestra and was substitute violin of Cincinnati, St Louis, Pittsburgh, and other symphony orchestras.

Luke Fitzpatrick

Lauded by the South Florida Classical Review for his “vivacious and buoyant” playing, flutist Luke Fitzpatrick is the recently appointed second flutist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. During the year, Luke serves as the principal flutist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. He has held principal positions with the Des Moines Metropolitan Opera, the Sarasota Opera, and the Artosphere Festival Orchestra.

Passionate about education, Luke is the professor of Flute at the Purdue University of Fort Wayne in Indiana, where he conducts the flute ensemble. He is also the co-founder and director of the Bonita Boyd International Master Class, “The Artistic Flutist,” a summer flute intensive at the Eastman School of Music that draws musicians from all over the world.

Luke holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Carnegie Mellon University, and The Colburn School.

Luke is overjoyed to be returning to Chautauqua this summer to make music with his incredibly talented colleagues here in New York.

Carrie Dreyer Fischer

Carrie Dreyer Fischer joined the viola section of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in 2022. She received her Orchestral Performance degree from Manhattan School of Music, and also holds viola performance degrees from University of Maryland and University of Oregon. Ms. Fischer has appeared as a soloist with the Chelsea Symphony in New York City performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. She has performed as a chamber musician with Trio Con Brio, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Verbier Chamber Orchestra, and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. While in New York, she played regularly at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. She has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, North Carolina Opera, Richmond Symphony, New World Symphony, and the Concert Artists of Baltimore.

As a member of the Verbier Festival and Chamber Orchestras, she toured throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, the US, and Canada. Ms. Fischer teaches at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, where she resides with her husband, violist Christopher Fischer and their two daughters.

Christopher Fischer

Christopher Fischer is the Principal Violist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, having previously served as Assistant Principal from 2015–2017. In the Chautauqua off-season, Mr. Fischer is a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Previous engagements have included Assistant Principal Viola of the North Carolina Symphony, Fellow at the New World Symphony, and Principal Viola of the Midland-Odessa Symphony. Born in Columbia, Missouri, Mr. Fischer holds degrees from Indiana University and University of Missouri. His principal teachers have included Atar Arad, Leslie Perna, and Yuval Gotlibovitch.

As a chamber musician, he has appeared frequently on the Cincinnati Symphony’s Chamber Players series, and has performed with the Borromeo Quartet, the Mallarme Chamber Players, and was a member of the Permian Basin String Quartet. He has been featured as a soloist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. Playing with the International Sejong Soloists, a chamber orchestra based in New York City, he performed nationally televised concerts at the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. As a member of the North Carolina Symphony’s Ensembles in the Schools String Quartet, he performed outreach concerts for students across North Carolina. Mr. Fischer teaches at the Cincinnati School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and has previously taught at Miami University, North Carolina State University, and the University of Texas at the Permian Basin.

Leslie Frey Anderegg

Leslie Frey Anderegg began playing violin at the age of 3 in her hometown of Clinton, South Carolina. Leslie received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Violin Performance from Indiana University and the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Henryk Kowalski and Stephen Rose. She has performed on the NPR show “From the Top” and was a featured soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra. Before joining the Phoenix Symphony violin section in 2005, Leslie was a member of many regional orchestras including the Greenville Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, Akron Symphony and Canton Symphony. Leslie was acting Assistant Principal 2nd Violin of the Phoenix Symphony from 2009 to 2021 and is currently a tenured member of the 1st violin section. She is also an active performer of chamber music around the valley and with Downtown Chamber Series.

During the summer months, Leslie has performed with the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra in Boulder, and the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra in Switzerland. Currently, Leslie spends summers in Chautauqua, NY where she is a member of the 1st violin section of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Leslie and her husband Peter have two children, Athena and Luca.

Ming Gao

Ming Gao , associate concertmaster of the Naples Philharmonic, concertmaster of Punta Gorda Symphony Orchestra, has served as concertmaster of the Nanjing Experimental Orchestra in his native China and of the Eastman Philharmonia at the Heidelberg Castle Festival in Germany. He has also served as acting concertmaster of the Youngstown and Harrisburg symphony orchestras and the MOSSPAC Chamber Orchestra. During the summer months, Ming is a first violinist in the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in New York, and he has also served as the acting associate concertmaster from the 2018 to 2022 seasons.

Ming Gao is an adjunct violin professor of Florida Gulf Coast University, he was also given the title of guest professor of violin at the Nanjing Conservatory of Music.

As a soloist, Ming has appeared with the Naples Philharmonic, Punta Gorda Symphony Orchestra,Orchestra Nova, Nanjing Experimental Orchestra and Jiangsu Provincial Symphony Orchestra, among others, performing a repertoire including Chen Gang’s Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor and Paganini’s Concerto in D Major.

Olivia Hamilton

Twin Cities-based clarinetist Olivia Hamilton serves as a Fellow with the Minnesota Orchestra. Hamilton became acquainted with the Chautauqua Institution in 2021 as a member of the Festival Orchestra, then joined as a member of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in 2024. She completed her degrees at The University of North Texas and Northwestern University where she studied with John Scott, Kimberly Cole Luevano, Steve Cohen, and Mark Nuccio. Hamilton has performed around The United States and Europe including Spoleto Festival, Classical Tahoe, and The International Lyric Academy. Hamilton has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She also performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center Honors, the Princeton Symphony, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, and Gateways Music Festival.

David Hult

Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; Rochester Oratorio Society, Concertmaster; Chautauqua Chamber Music Society, Music Director; Rhapsodie Trio; formerly faculty at Rochester Institute of Technology, Director of the Performing Arts Scholars Program, Nazareth University; SUNY Geneseo.

Daniel Kaler

A member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra since 2022 and 2024, respectively, cellist Daniel Kaler received his B.M from the Cleveland Institute of Music and M.M from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, studying with Mark Kosower and Brinton Smith.

In recent years, Kaler performed with orchestras such as the Bogotá Philharmonic, Boca del Rio Philharmonic, Asheville Symphony, Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra, to name a few. He was a prizewinner at competitions such as the Clara Schumann International Competition, Muse International Music Competition, and the North International Music Competition. His concert engagements for the 2023-24 season include performances of works by Bach, Brahms, Kodály, and Tchaikovsky.

Kaler attended and gave performances at solo, chamber, and orchestral programs, such as the Chautauqua Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Heifetz Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, North Shore Chamber Music Festival, and Chicago Cultural Center. Appearances include performances on WFMT’s “Introductions”, WCLV 104.9, as well as WCPN’s “Applause Performances”.

Olga Kaler

Praised by critics for her “deep, soulful sound” and “powerful, enchanting renditions,” Olga Dubossarskaya Kaler has toured three continents as a soloist, chamber musician, and artist-teacher, balancing her performing and teaching careers with equal success. She joined the violin faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2017, following her 15-year tenure at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago.

Olga Dubossarskaya Kaler’s original composition for solo violin, Recitativo and Toccata, was published in 2020 by the Soundwave Music Company, along with her edition of the Solo Violin Sonata by Boris Dubossarsky, her father, a celebrated Moldavian composer. Both works are included in her critically acclaimed 2022 Centaur Records CD release, Seven Ways To Say Farewell. Four out of seven pieces are world premiere recordings.

Dr. Kaler’s scale system for violin and for viola, entitled Scale System for Reluctant Scale Enthusiasts, and her method book, An Effective Method for Teaching and Studying Violin Technique, met with enthusiastic reception from string players and pedagogues worldwide. Both works are published through Amazon, and in an electronic version through Ovation Press.

Kaler holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, and her previous degrees are from the New England Conservatory, the Moscow State Conservatory, and the Stolyarsky Special Music School for Gifted Children in Odessa, Ukraine. Among her violin competition awards are Diploma and the Special Prize for the best performance of the required work “Arioso and Burlesque” by Ottavio Zino at the Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition, 1st Prize at the Northwestern Competition, as well as the 1st Prize at Thaviu-Isaak Competition, USA.

Roger Kaza

Roger Kaza rejoined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as Principal Horn in the fall of 2009, after 14 years with the Houston Symphony. He was previously third horn of the SLSO during the Leonard Slatkin era, and prior to that held positions in the Vancouver BC Symphony, Boston Symphony, and the Boston Pops, where he was solo horn under John Williams. In addition to his SLSO duties, Kaza is Principal Horn of the Chautauqua Symphony in New York, and has played guest principal with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and the symphonies of San Francisco, Dallas, Detroit, and Utah, among others. A native of Portland, Oregon, he attended Portland State University, studying with Pat Fay and Christopher Leuba, and later transferred to the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he received a Bachelor of Music with Honors in 1977 under the tutelage of Thomas E. Newell, Jr.

The son of two musicians growing up in a musical family, Kaza received his early training on piano with Lenore Cowling, giving two solo recitals on that instrument before concentrating on horn. He has studied composition with the late Czech-American composer Tomas Svoboda and conducting with Leonard Slatkin, Gunther Schuller, and Murry Sidlin. He has conducted more than 40 concerts with members of the Houston Symphony under the auspices of its Community Connections outreach program, giving free concerts in schools, churches, homeless shelters, and retirement homes.

As an educator, Kaza has served on the faculties of the University of Houston, Rice University, St. Louis Conservatory, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Tanglewood, Chautauqua, and has given master classes at the Eastman School, Juilliard, Curtis, Indiana University, University of Michigan, and many others. In 2019 he was invited to serve as faculty for Yo-Yo Ma’s YMCG festival in Guangzhou, China. His students fill orchestral positions worldwide, including major U.S. symphonies and chamber groups such as the American Brass Quintet. In addition, he has been engaged as a featured artist for the International Horn Society at its annual convention. He is creator of the humorous instructional CD, Audition: Improbable, and a contributor to the syndicated NPR radio show and podcast, Engines of Our Ingenuity.

Kaza has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, including the St. Louis, Vancouver, and Houston symphonies, and the Carlos Chavez Chamber Orchestra in Mexico City. In 2021 he performed the world premiere of Stefan Freund’s Voyageur Fantasy, a work commissioned by the SLSO in honor of the Missouri Bicentennial. A frequent chamber musician as well, he performs regularly with the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, Ariel Concert Series, and numerous summer venues, including the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Mainly Mozart, Strings in the Mountains, the Aspen, and Marrowstone festivals.

An avid cyclist, hiker, and whitewater rafter, Kaza is especially fond of the horn in its original setting: out-of-doors. A performance of Olivier Messiaen’s “Interstellar Call,” from his suite From the Canyons to the Stars, recorded at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, was personally critiqued by the composer shortly before his death in 1992.

In 2023, Kaza was named Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis, an ensemble comprised of the metro area’s top freelancers, sharing the stand with a handful of elite students.

Simon Lapointe

Canadian-American violinist Simon Lapointe enjoys a varied career as a performer and teacher. In addition to serving as Principal Second Violin of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra for 17 years and Assistant Principal Second Violin of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra since 2010, he has also served as Assistant Concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony, Assistant Principal Second Violin of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and Acting Concertmaster of the West Virginia Symphony.

Simon has performed the concertos of Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Mozart, and Vivaldi with several orchestras in the United States and Canada. Since 2005, he is the first violin of Ambrosia Quartet, which recorded an album of music by Adolfus Hailstork, released in 2017 on Albany Records. He can also be heard on Centaur, Erm Media and Navona Records.

His teachers include Helmut Lipsky, Johanne Pothier and Martin Beaver. He is a graduate of the Conservatoire de musique de Trois-Rivières and the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University.

Kathryn Levy

Kathryn Levy found her career interest early on and distinguished herself in orchestral performance while studying at the Music Academy of the West in California, The Aspen Music Festival in Colorado and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY where she studied with the legendary Joseph Mariano and earned the BM and Performer’s Certificate. Ms. Levy currently holds the John Henry Myers, Sr Chair as Principal Flutist of the Winston-Salem Symphony and plays piccolo with the Chautauqua Symphony flute section. Prior to moving to Winston-Salem in 1976, she held positions with the New Orleans Philharmonic and the Rochester Philharmonic orchestras. In addition, she has performed with the New Hampshire Music Festival, the Peter Britt Festival in Oregon, the Cabrillo Festival and the Mozart Festival, both in California, the North Carolina Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, the Greensboro Symphony, the Salisbury Symphony and has toured Europe three times with the American Sinfonietta.

Eric Lindblom

Eric Lindblom is currently bass trombonist of the Helsingborg (Sweden) and Chautauqua Symphony orchestras where he also serves on the faculty for the Music School Festival Orchestra. Prior to moving to Helsingborg he served as the bass trombonist of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra for ten seasons. Mr. Lindblom is also a faculty member at Musikhögskolan Ingesund and Malmö Musikhögskolan in Sweden. He appears in over 50 recordings with orchestras from around the world. Mr. Lindblom received his degree from the Eastman School of Music (USA) studying with Dr. John Marcellus.

Leslie Linn

Leslie is currently based near Washington, D.C., freelancing there and in Arizona in a variety of musical genres. He is Principal Trumpet with the Arizona Opera and performs every summer as a member of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the Loudoun Symphony and the Capital Wind Symphony and has played with the Alexandria Symphony, and the Washington Concert Opera.

Leslie has taught at every level from pre-Kindergarten through university graduate courses, including Wichita State University and the Keystone Brass Institute. He created the band program at All Saints’ Episcopal Day School in Phoenix.

Leslie has been a member or performed with Palo Verde Brass, Summit Brass, the Phoenix Symphony, la Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, the Wichita Symphony, the Graz Festival Orchestra, the Basque National Orchestra, the New Mexico Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the Rogue Valley Symphony, the Adrian Symphony, the Reading Symphony, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

Leslie works as an educator through teaching private lessons, coaching brass ensembles, giving masterclasses, and guest conducting school ensembles.

Leslie has been an American Federation of Musicians member since 1981, and currently belongs to Local 586 (Phoenix, AZ), Local 134 (Jamestown, NY), and Local 161-710 (Metropolitan Washington D.C.).

Molly McDonald

Molly McDonald joined the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in 2025, and is also a violinist in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Previously, Molly was Assistant Principal Second of the Canton Symphony, and has enjoyed playing as a substitute with ensembles including the Kansas City Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the New World Symphony.

Molly grew up in Kansas City, gaining exposure to chamber music and orchestral playing through local festivals. In the following years she studied at the Interlochen Arts Camp, the Castleman String Quartet Program, the Round Top Festival Institute, the National Repertory Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, the Tanglewood Institute, and the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. A student of Juliana Athayde, concertmaster of the RPO, Molly graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music and went on to earn a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music with William

In addition to her orchestral career, Molly is a founding member of the Salaff String Quartet, which has been performing concerts and community outreach since 2014. She is passionate about teaching chamber music and working with adult students. Molly is also a Baroque violinist, performing with early music ensembles in upstate New York.

Lenelle Morse

Lenelle Morse, a 1st violinist with the Chautauqua Symphony since 1992, lives in Bellingham, WA. She studied violin performance and mathematics at Indiana University, then served as the Associate Concertmaster of the Fort Wayne, IN Philharmonic and a founding member of the Freimann String Quartet. As a violin teacher, she was the orchestra director at Canterbury School, Fort Wayne then joined the faculty at Peabody Preparatory of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. She appreciates performing with the Bellingham Chamber Music Society as well as the Bellingham Symphony. Lenelle has a strong group of violin students that she teaches and accompanies at her home, and she coaches for the Bellingham Youth Chamber Groups. Being a member of the CSO family has been one of the true gifts of her life.

Kurt Munstedt

Violinist Kurt Munstedt has been a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra since 2023. He was previously Assistant Principal second violin of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and Principal second violin of the Boston Festival Orchestra. While in New Orleans, Kurt taught violin at the University of New Orleans, and founded its quartet-in-residence, The Lott String Quartet. He founded the period-performance collective Rogue Baroque and the crossover quartet Radio Bird.

Originally from Needham, Massachusetts, he holds Bachelor of Music degrees in violin and audio recording from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Masters degree from Carnegie Mellon University. His principal teachers include Joel Smirnoff and Andres Cardenes.

Timothy Peters

Timothy Peters is performing with the Houston Symphony for the 2024-25 season after previously serving as Associate Concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic and Principal 2nd Violin of the Malaysian Philharmonic. He has performed as a titled guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including Guest Concertmaster with the Norrlandsoperan Symfoniorkester (Sweden) and Louisiana Philharmonic, Principal 2nd Violin with the Dresden Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, and Aalborg Symfoniorkester (Denmark), and Sub-Principal 2nd Violin with the BBC Philharmonic. He has additionally performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and San Diego Symphony. As a member of the Degas and Brutini String Quartets, he has performed in Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kimmel Center, and on the Schneider, Chicago, Raleigh, Music Mondays (NYC), and Austin Chamber Music Series. As an educator and guest clinician, he has given classes at the University of Houston, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Appalachian State, Seattle University, and in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Mark Robbins

Mark Robbins, originally from Bethesda Maryland, has been Associate Principal French Horn with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera Orchestras since 1998. He has been a soloist with the Seattle Symphony on a number of occasions, and a member of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra horn section since 1984. Previously he was a member of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra in Miami. Also a frequent performer of chamber music, he’s performed often with the Seattle Chamber Players, and has performed at the Spoleto, Italy, Tanglewood, and Olympic Music Festivals. He is an active teacher and has former students holding positions as professional musicians around the country and world. He has been the horn coach for the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, and has taught at Cornish College for the Arts. He graduated from Temple University with a music performance degree, where he studied horn with the late Kendall Betts.

Anton Shelepov

Violinist Anton Shelepov’s multifaceted career has gained him praises from critics: “His technical skill, combined with his superb gift of musical interpretation, was dazzling” (The Flint Journal), “Shelepov, the compact powerhouse whose fiddle floated and soared… got his shining hour (42 minutes, to be exact) at Friday night’s Masterworks concert…” (Lansing City Pulse.) Native Siberian, Anton began playing violin at the age of four and went on to earn Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Violin Performance from St. Petersburg Conservatory and Michigan State University respectively. He is a winner in various international competitions including Gartow Stiftung String Quartet (St.Petersburg, Russia), Tadeusz Wronski Solo Violin (Warsaw, Poland), William Byrd Young Artist (Flint, MI), and recipient of the prestigious David Oistrakh Award from Rostropovich’s “Slava” International Foundation.

As a soloist with orchestras and chamber musician, Anton has appeared in both Americas, Europe and Russia. He collaborated with prominent composers of our time including Rodion Shchedrin, Augusta Read Thomas, John Corigliano and Peter Dyson, whose works he premiered and recorded in Russia, France and the US. As a founding member of Krasni String Quartet, he recorded 4 CDs for the British OLYMPIA label featuring sets of string quartets by Schebalin and Taneev.

A devoted educator, Dr. Shelepov has been a faculty member of the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute and the West Virginia State University. He enjoyed performing innovative outreach programs for thousands of students nationwide annually as a member of the award-winning Montclaire String Quartet in Residence at WVSU.

Before joining the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024 as the First Assistant Concertmaster, Anton has served as Concertmaster of the Lansing Symphony and the West Virginia Symphony as well as a member of the North Carolina Symphony. Since 2015, Shelepov has been a member of the First Violin Section of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Baltimore, Detroit and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras working under the batons of distinguished conductors such as Sir Andrew Davis, Manfred Honeck, Leonard Slatkin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Peter Oundjian.

Richard Sherman

Richard Sherman is professor of flute at the Michigan State University College of Music.

Active as a soloist, orchestral musician, and recitalist, Sherman is a dynamic performer of outstanding dramatic power. He is principal flute with the Chautauqua (New York) Symphony Orchestra, the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico, the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, and the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, and former principal flute with the Rochester (New York) Philharmonic Orchestra. He has given performances with the Chicago Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. His work as a soloist includes the Columbus Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, Youngstown Symphony, Lansing Symphony, and Chautauqua Symphony, among many others.

Sherman was the recipient of an ITT International Fellowship for study at the Royal College of Music in London and received the Henri Cohn Memorial Prize at Tanglewood for most outstanding fellowship student. As an educator, he oversees a vibrant flute studio at Michigan State University while also giving master classes throughout the country, including the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, Louisiana State University, Ohio State University, Arizona State University, Brigham Young University, and University of Michigan, among others. In 2020, he was presented with the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award, honored for a comprehensive and sustained record of excellence in creative activities, instruction and outreach. The award was highlighted in an article in The Chautauqua Daily. He previously received, as voted by his peers, the Excellence in Teaching Award, funded by the Dortha J. and John D. Withrow Endowed Fund for Excellence in Teaching.

Internationally, Sherman has given master classes and recitals in Australia, Brazil, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Ireland, and Puerto Rico. He also leads a Michigan State University study abroad course in Ireland at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin which has proven a transformative experience not only for flute students but other student musicians as well. In summers he serves as Head of Winds, Brass, and Percussion at the Chautauqua School of Music. In the Lansing area, Sherman is the founding artistic director of the Absolute Music Chamber Series in Old Town, a nonprofit organization which presents eclectic interactive outreach concerts. He is also the artistic director of the Lansing Symphony Chamber Series under the auspices of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra.

Sherman’s recordings with pianist Ralph Votapek, Flute Sonatas and American Landscape, are released on Summit Records. He has released three recordings on the Blue Griffin label with a fourth on the way. The French Album, with pianist Kimberly Schmidt, was released in 2006 to critical acclaim. Fanfare’s Jerry Dubin writes: “I cannot imagine any of this music being more beautifully or lovingly played than it is here…” Sherman’s French Album II: Homage to Pedagogy, with Votapek, was released in 2012, and French Album III: Bucoliques, with pianist Minsoo Sohn, was released in 2015. Music of the British Isles, with pianist Genadi Zagor, was released in summer 2019. Of Sherman, Fanfare’s Jim Svejda writes: “On the evidence of this album of British flute music, he is both a subtle, imaginative, technically flawless flutist and—even more to the point—a first-rate musician.”

Daniel Spitzer

Since 2013, Daniel Spitzer has served as Chautquaqua Symphony’s Bass/Utility Clarinetist. His musical pursuits extend beyond Chautauqua, as he’s Second/Bass Clarinetist with the Delaware Symphony, long time substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and holds Principal Clarinet roles with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Fenimore Chamber Orchestra.

He has had numerous performances with the NY Philharmonic, the NYC Ballet Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the American Symphony at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. His music has led him on tours throughout the U.S., Japan, Korea, Cuba, and Germany.

He has collaborated with artists such as Chris Botti, Joshua Bell, Wynton Marsalis, The Irish Tenors, Hilary Hahn, and Yo-Yo Ma.

He’s also embraced Broadway, featuring productions like Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserable, On the Town, The Music Man, The King and I, Mary Poppins, and Beauty and the Beast.

Educated at The Juilliard, Eastman, and Manhattan Schools of Music, Daniel is not only a performer but also a committed educator. Daniel has been a Clarinet professor at Rutgers University Mason Gross School for the Arts and contributed to the faculties of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, State University in Starkville, and Millsaps College in Jackson, MS.

He has collaborated with artists such as Chris Botti, Joshua Bell, Wynton Marsalis, The Irish Tenors, Hilary Hahn, and Yo-Yo Ma.

He’s also embraced Broadway, featuring productions like Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserable, On the Town, The Music Man, The King and I, Mary Poppins, and Beauty and the Beast.

Micah Wilkinson

Micah serves as principal trumpet of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and has appeared as guest principal trumpet with various orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, and the Seoul Philharmonic. He and his family love spending their summers in Chautauqua! More info can be found at micahwilkinson.com

looking for something?